LIFESTYLE//CULTURE//INSIGHT

Watch ‘Tower Block Dreams’, the Documentary ‘People Just Do Nothing’ is Based on

The Kurupt FM crew have been inescapable recently. From their Radio 1Xtra session with Craig David and Big Narstie, to performing what has been dubbed the worst Live Lounge session ever earlier this week, these Brentford bad boys have been all over your airwaves, television screens and newsfeeds more than Craig David’s been all over your ‘boink’.

Their quick-witted parody of the inner workings of a lo-fi pirate radio station and gritty urban life works so well because there is something familiar about the characters. Everyone has met someone a little bit like them, or can at least imagine these loveable yet deluded caricatures. The satire becomes amusing because the assumption is that these characters have been taken to their extreme, but could never really exist in real life.

This is definitely a fair thought to have as you watch the trials and tribulations of MC Grindah and DJ Beats, but what makes it even better is the knowledge that People Just Do Nothing is based on the 2004 BBC Three documentary Tower Block Dreams. The documentary, among other things, features a less than capable Killer running the Y2K pirate radio station alongside a Beats and a Decoy… Sound familiar?

The most amazing thing is just how much People Just Do Nothing mirrors the documentary, right down to Grindah’s slow, stuttered speech, which is pretty much a direct impersonation of Killer’s. It just goes to show, if you want to make great comedy you just need to copy real life, because the world’s funny enough already.